The federal government has filed a $140,000 lien against property owned by former state Rep. Joe Armstrong to collect fees and restitution in his criminal tax case.

The lien includes any property Armstrong owns, according to Nick McBride with the Knox County Register of Deeds. Property records show that in addition to his $426,200 Holston Hills home, Armstrong owns a Selma Avenue house worth $34,900 and co-owns a $6,000 parcel on Plymouth Street.

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County Commissioner Joe Armstrong stands outside his business, Atlanta Life Insurance Co., on April 17, 1986, at 2248 McCalla Avenue. Someone was making a statement by placing fish heads on his doorstep, an act of local drug dealers who are resisting a crime cleanup in the East Knoxville neighborhood. (NEWS SENTINEL ARCHIVE)

State Rep. Joe Armstrong, with his wife, LeTonia, gives a statement to the media after his initial hearing on charges of tax evasion and fraud on Friday, June 19, 2015, at the Howard H. Baker Jr. United States Courthouse. At left is attorney Gregory Isaacs. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL)

State Rep. Joe Armstrong, left, sits across from President Barack Obama at a National Black Caucus of State Legislators meeting to discuss a balanced approach to the debt limit and deficit reduction on Dec. 4, 2012, at the White House. (Pete Souza/ White House)

Members of the House of Representatives including Joe Armstrong of Knoxville, second from left, watch the voting board display as they vote whether to override Gov. Bill Haslam's veto of a bill seeking to make the Bible the state's official book Wednesday, April 20, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

State Rep. Joe Armstrong, center, with his wife, LeTonia, and attorney Gregory Isaacs, leaves court after being found guilty of one felony count in his tax fraud trial Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, at the Howard H. Baker Jr. U.S. Courthouse. The jury acquitted Armstrong of two other counts. He was charged with conspiring with accountant Charles Stivers to hide the profit from a cigarette tax stamp hike that Armstrong helped pass. (PAUL EFIRD/NEWS SENTINEL)

The East Knoxville Democrat, who represented the 15th District for nearly 30 years before he was forced to step down because of his felony conviction, made roughly $321,000 when he used Knoxville tobacco wholesaler Tru Wholesale to buy cigarette tax stamps for him at the 2006 rate of 20 cents per pack and then sell the stamps after a 42-cent cigarette tax hike went into effect in 2007.

Armstrong voted for the tax hike.

It was not a crime for the lawmaker to profit from the law, even though he voted on it, nor was it a crime for Tru Wholesale owners Boyd Wyatt and Roger Cox to cut Armstrong in on the deal to hoard tax stamps until the hike went into effect. But hiding the money from the IRS was criminal.

Armstrong blamed his accountant, Charles Marshall Stivers, for the failure to report the income. A jury in August acquitted Armstrong on charges of tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government but found him guilty of filing the false return. Armstrong's attorney, Gregory P. Isaacs, said in March that Armstrong had decided not to appeal the conviction.

Armstrong stepped down from office in September. He was replaced on the ballot by Rick Staples, also a Democrat, who went on to win the seat in the November election.